


Can't Erase What is Written in Ink

by PossiblyAwesomeAO3



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine, Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Gen, I'm Sorry, Ink, Lots of it, a dan and phil fanfiction where they don't kiss at the end? wowza, baby dab and teenage dab are two different characters, dan and phil went on to try and make a cartoon show about dil, hopefully you don't get them confused, i'm not surprised, it doesn't go well, it's the 30s but they sound like they're from the present, phil goes too far, that's right it's a bendy and the ink machine au, there's no devan, who woulda thought that could exist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-01 23:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14532063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PossiblyAwesomeAO3/pseuds/PossiblyAwesomeAO3
Summary: Dear Dan,I know it's been a while since I've written you, and I'm sorry about that that. I've been busy working on something. Something that's going to change the world.I'd tell you more, but I think it should be a surprise. If you come to town any time soon, stop by the workshop and I'll show you.From, Phil :)From the moment Dan pushed open the door to the old workshop, something felt...off. It seemed as if the place had been completely abandoned, even though it had only been eight years since he left the company. The desks were empty, the halls were quiet, and there wasn't a person in sight.But, despite it's appearance, the workshop was anything but abandoned.





	Can't Erase What is Written in Ink

Phil stepped out onto the balcony the overlooked the huge room, his heart pounding in his chest. This was it, _this was it_. Yes, he'd tried this before, and failed plenty of times, too many times to count, but this time it felt different. He was certain he'd got it right this time. 

Phil turned the crank on the wall, and heard the familiar sound of the gears creaking and turning. The machine rose into the center of the room, tall and imposing. It was taller than the height of the balcony Phil was stood on. On one side, a huge nozzle stuck out. It had taken a while to build, of course. It was completely from scratch, a completely new idea. 

Phil smiled. Now was the time. Everything had led up to this moment. His creation would finally work, would finally be complete after so many years of -- 

"Phil."

PJ's voice broke his thoughts, and Phil sighed. PJ always seemed to step in at the worst possible moment. Phil looked back to see him standing in the doorway, his arms crossed, but his expression soft. Concerned. Maybe even a little bit afraid. PJ took a step forward, but didn't get any closer. The one advantage that Phil has was how much PJ hated that machine.

"This has gone too far already." PJ said. "You know that, right? This needs to end, now." 

"You're right. It has gone too far." Phil said. He turned his back to PJ, looking at his machine with pride. "Too far to stop now. I've already sent him the letter. We've almost made it, PJ. I'm so _close_."

PJ reached forward, grabbed a hold of Phil's wrist, and yanked Phil back away from the edge of the balcony that separated him and a 20 foot drop towards the floor in front of the machine below. Phil's mood dropped. Something was...different, about PJ. There was a sort of determination in PJ's eyes that Phil didn't think he liked. It didn't seem like he was here just for a chat. Phil pulled his wrist away from PJ. 

"What was that for?" He asked, though he knew exactly why PJ was here. PJ was done with using meaningless words, he could see that much. Maybe he'd start with words - he was PJ, after all - but he certainly was planning on doing more if he had to. Phil tensed in anticipation of whatever was to come - whatever it was, he'd be ready.

"Look at me, Phil." PJ said. "I don't know what the hell's gotten into you, okay? I know everything that's happened messed you up pretty damn bad, but this is insanity, you have to know that. You don't go home, you don't eat, I'm about eighty percent sure you aren't sleeping...all you talk about is the machine and the Dil Project. It's consumed your life."

"The Dil Project is going to solve everything." Phil said. He didn't understand why PJ couldn't understand. He'd come up with a solution, a good solution. It had taken a long while, endless nights of staying up until the sun rose, staring at a blank wall, trying to figure out where everything had gone wrong and how to possibly make it right again. "Don't you see that? I have to put everything into it."

"It was fine when you just wanted to make your cartoons, but now? Now you're talking about playing God!" PJ said. "And you're dragging everyone else into your crazy talk. I don't know what the hell you've been telling Chris, but he's started mumbling shit about worshiping the new 'overlords' or something...it's terrifying! You have to know that, somewhere inside you!"

"It's just creation. Creation for good. I'm not playing God." 

He was. He knew he was. 

"Phil," PJ said. "We...we can get you some kind of help. Louise and I, we're both worried about you. We can take you to therapy, or something, and--"

"Why do you think I need therapy? I'm fine, PJ, I've told you a thousand times. I'm fine. I don't need a lobotomy." Phil said.

"I never said lobotomy."

"Well, it always ends up at that point with therapy these days, doesn't it?" Phil said, glancing back at PJ. He was met with silence, and took it to mean exactly what he thought it meant. "I don't want any doctor rummaging around in my head. I'm just fine. Or, I will be, once this works."

"He won't come back because of this." PJ said. "He'll be horrified. You know that, right?"

Phil sucked in a breath. PJ always went back to that. He always went back to the moment that started everything, and it always, _always_ struck a nerve with Phil. 

"I thought we talked about this. He won't be horrified. He'll come back to see it." He said. 

"He won't be horrified by the deformed...ink... _things_?"  

"We can keep them under control just fine, PJ." Phil said. His voice was calm, a practiced kind of calm. "Besides, they've just been the Pancakes. Nobody cares about the Pancakes." 

"You _know_ we can't keep them under control for very long." PJ said. "Listen to yourself, Phil. They're scary, they're dangerous, and you're advocating for them. Even after you saw what happened to Mark."

"That was just a simple mistake-"

"Mistake? We had to put an axe through his head!" PJ exclaimed. "He barely even did anything! He just _poked_ one of the things, and-"

PJ didn't need to continue, or maybe he didn't want to. 

"A simple mistake." Phil stressed. "Every experiment goes through rough patches, it's no big deal. It became a learning experience, didn't it?" 

"You're talking about the death of another man, here." PJ said. "A good man."

"And I suppose you're included in that category." Phil said. "When, can I ask, was I taken out of it?"

PJ looked flustered for a split second, and as much as he would have liked to be, Phil wasn't surprised. He knew PJ didn't consider him to be a good man anymore, and he knew he'd lost that title long ago. He just wasn't sure why. 

"I...I do believe you're a good man, Phil." PJ said. He spoke slowly, carefully choosing each word. "But I feel like you've been lost to those dreams over yours. You've buried yourself so deep under dreams that the tiniest bit of logic can't even slip through the cracks anymore."

"You keep saying that, even when I've told you that my head's on perfectly straight." Phil said. "PJ, even if you don't believe me to be a good man anymore, I know there's still a part of you that trusts me. However deep that part may be. I'm promising you, I'm fine. I'm promising you, this will work. I know I've got it right this time." 

"How can you be sure?" PJ asked. "What happens if you go through with this and it doesn't work? Then we have another ink creature walking around the place trying to attack people. The other employees will get suspicious when we have to suddenly shut everything down for the seventh time this month."

"People will accept what you tell them." 

"They came here to create cartoons. Not to serve as possible victims for deformed monsters." PJ said, and grabbed Phil's arm again, forcing him to look back at him. Phil was kind of getting tired of his attention being pulled away. "Without you properly heading the company, everything's falling to pieces. Nothing's getting finished on time anymore. You should come back. Really come back. You need to drop this whole project and come back to everyone else. They need you." 

 "They need Dan." Phil said. "They turned to me because they needed Dan, and I was the closest second. It was never about me." 

He could remember it so vividly, too. He went from be a partner to a leader in one conversation, thrust up onto the pedestal with no warning. He could remember their office becoming his office, their employees becoming his employees, their work becoming his work. He could remember the day they scraped his name off the company logo. Phil knew he should have been excited - he'd technically been promoted, after all - but it had all felt so wrong. It felt like he and Dan had worked together to fill a hole for their entire career, and then Phil was left to find a way to fill a hole meant for two with only one. 

"Oh, please. This has always all been about you." PJ said. "Don't even act as if it hasn't been. They look up to you now, Phil, not Dan. You." 

"It started with Dan." Phil said, pulling his arm away from PJ's grasp. "I'm making sure it ends with Dan coming back."

Phil had barely even taken a step towards the lever before PJ reacted. 

"Phil, _no!"_

He tackled Phil to the ground, desperate to keep him away from the lever. Phil's head nearly slammed into the balcony, and even though he missed, the balcony still shuddered from the impact of two fully grown men slamming into the ground. It felt like a sudden frightening warning sign, and Phil's heart jumped into his throat. He needed to do it now. _Now_ , while the place was still functioning. 

"PJ, get off!" Phil yelled, struggling to get away from him. His voice was desperate, his practiced calm melting away in the shadow of panic. "You can't take this from me! I'm so close! It's the only way to get him back, you don't understand!" 

"Look around you, Phil! This place is falling apart! There's a reason Dan left. You have to know when it's enough!" 

So PJ could see it, too. That only made Phil's panic rise. If PJ knew that the place was falling apart, then he had to have been using it against Phil in the moment. Phil wasn't about to let him win that easy. 

"I'm not going to quit! Not when I'm this close!" 

PJ was trying to pin Phil to the ground, but couldn't get a hold of one of Phil's arms before Phil managed to punch him square in the nose. PJ instinctively pulled back, and Phil managed to get out from underneath him. He looked back to see PJ's nose was bleeding. 

Phil stood. He'd planned to take the time while PJ was distracted with his nose to get the lever, but PJ reached out and grabbed a hold of Phil's wrist. He held on tightly, and he looked as if he didn't care that his nose was bleeding. 

"I don't want to hurt you, Phil --"

"Then you're at the disadvantage." Phil said. He ripped his wrist away from PJ, and kicked him in the chest without a second thought. PJ fell backwards, and the balcony shuddered again. PJ's head barely missed the bars of the balcony. Phil felt a pang of guilt, but he pushed it down. If PJ wanted to dish it out, he'd have to be able to take it. Phil headed back towards the lever, all too confident that he'd get there before PJ stumbled to his feet. 

PJ didn't really think too much about it. All he could focus on was getting Phil away from the lever, from switching the damn machine on, from releasing yet another monstrosity into the building. He was dizzy from the impact, but ran to what he hoped was the general direction of Phil. He wrapped his arms tightly around Phil's waist, who gave a yelp of surprise. 

"What- PJ, get off!" He yelled. 

"Sorry, Phil...I can't let you do this..." PJ said. He pulled Phil to the side as hard as he could, throwing the both of them off balance. PJ landed on the floor with an unceremonious thud, his arm taking most of the hit for him.  

Phil, on the hand, wasn't so lucky. 

The flimsy wooden beams of the balcony collapsed under the force he was thrown into him, and Phil screamed as he fell twenty feet to the ground. He landed with a nasty cracking noise, that was quickly accompanied by a new, less fearful and more anguished type of scream. 

"Phil!" PJ yelled, and looked over the edge of the balcony in a panic, only to see Phil below, with one leg and one arm bent in a way that wasn't humanly possible. "Oh, _shit_. Phil! Don't panic, I'll get Louise, we'll come get you, it's going to be okay --"

"I know." Phil said, and a smile came over his face as he looked up at the ceiling. A sense of dread came over PJ before Phil even said his next words. "I know it'll be okay. I just won."

PJ slowly turned his head, almost too afraid to look, but the lever was resting in the 'On' position. 

Phil had managed to pull the lever at the last second. 

The machine roared to life, and Phil turned as best as he could to watch, a hopeful look on his face. "Come on, _please work..._ "

"Shit, shit, shit...Louise!" PJ yelled. He pushed himself back to his feet, stumbling over to the lever. He attempted to pull it back down to the 'off' position, but it was stuck fast. PJ pulled as hard as he could, but to no avail. It was too late to stop the machine now. All PJ could do was watch as the ink began pouring from the nozzle of the machine, a sudden relentless wave of pure darkness. PJ would never understand how Phil saw any sort of beauty in it. 

Louise burst into the room, a panicked look on her face. 

"What's happened? What's..." She froze as she saw the scene below. Something was forming in the ink as the room began to slowly fill up. Phil didn't even move, watching intently, transfixed by the machine. The ink was about halfway up his body as he lay there, helpless, but either he didn't realize or he didn't care. PJ was pretty sure it was a mix of both. Louise grabbed a hold of PJ's arm. "We have to go. We have to go right _now."_  

"No, we can't just leave him!" PJ said, staring down at Phil in horror. No matter how Phil had been acting lately, he was still PJ's friend. "We have to find a way down there to get him without being caught up by anything ourselves-"

"He's too far gone, we can't stay here. The pipes'll start bursting any second now that the machine's been activated, you know that. We have to go before we're caught, too." 

"I'm not going to leave Phil so close to that thing-"

"Do you think I want to?" Louise asked. "PJ, he made his choice. We can't help him anymore. Come on!" 

She started pulling him towards the door, but before she could get there, a pipe burst in the hallway. Ink spewed across the doorway, blocking the pathway out. Louise screamed, backing away from the door as far as she could. PJ caught her before she could fall off the side. He could hear distant screaming throughout the building as more pipes began to burst. 

"This is bad!" He shouted. 

"Oh, you think?" Louise asked, and looked back at where Phil was lying on the floor. The something that was forming in the ink finally seemed to take shape, and stood up a little straighter. It appeared to be humanoid, but overall, it was just a black, dripping shadow of a human figure. There was the beginnings of a smile on his face, but the smile was crooked. Evil. Something to be feared, as every test run before it had turned out to be. The rest of the creature's face was solid black, with no other features to speak of. 

It hadn't worked.

Both PJ and Louise watched helplessly as the thing spotted Phil, and immediately started towards him. Phil tried to scramble backwards, panicked shouts echoing through the room, but it was useless. With a broken leg and arm, he was no match for the thing, even with how slow it was. Louise let out a sob as she watched the figure grab hold of Phil's ankle, and pull him under the sea of ink filling the room. The creature itself vanished seconds later, leaving no trace it had ever even been there in the first place. 

"We don't have much time." PJ said. His voice was shaking, and his legs felt like gelatin. "We all saw what happened to Mark, and that was just from a touch. Who knows what he'll come back as?" 

"We can't go anywhere, PJ, we're trapped!" Louise said. "And by the sound of it, the others are either trapped or in the same boat as Phil!"

She didn't just much more time before a new figure suddenly burst from the ink below. He was similar to the one they'd seen before, given that it was humanoid, made entirely out of black ink, and had a crooked smile, but there were a few new features. It seemed to have more of a face than before, although ink was dripping down across it, covering the new monster's eyes entirely. The top of its head seemed to resemble hair, and three white cartoony hearts had appeared on its chest. It would have been comical if it wasn't so damn scary in the moment. 

Both PJ and Louise knew exactly what it was supposed to be, but PJ was the first to say it out loud. 

"...Dil." 

The monster, Dil, turned in their direction, staring up at the balcony with newfound interest. If PJ's experience with trying to control the creatures was any good in this scenario, he knew it wouldn't take Dil long to get to them. Apparently, so did Louise, because she grabbed his wrist, and pulled his back towards the door. 

"Come on! Let's go!" She shouted. There was no point in being quiet now. Dil knew about their presence. He'd find them even if they were as silent as stones. 

"But...that's-" PJ tripped over his words. Going out through the door into the ink...it was accepting Mark's fate. It was accepting Phil's. 

"It's either the ink or being ripped to shreds by a failed Dil!" Louise yelled. "I pick the ink! Let's go!"

She let go of his hand, and ran, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway. 

PJ looked back one more time to see Dil coming closer to him. Sure enough, Dil had figured out which way the stairs were, and was stomping up towards the balcony. PJ knew what had just happened. He'd seen it with Mark. He'd seen it happen with a few other test subjects. PJ knew exactly why Phil wasn't coming back up for air, and as far as he knew, there was no way to reverse it. He bit his lip, and closed his eyes, the crooked smile burning into his vision. He opened his eyes again, and saw that Dil was getting too close for his own safety. PJ took a deep breath. 

"...bye, Phil."

And with that, he turned, ran out into the hallway, and braced himself as he let the dark, inky abyss swallow him forever. 


End file.
